Tuesday, October 30, 2007

A few hours ago we watched the best movie of the Asian Filmfest so far: Flash Point. A great movie with mind-blowing action! One of the best action movies I have seen (though I have to admit that I haven´t seen too many of them).

About the movie:"Flash Point" belongs in the new crop of Hong Kong films that have begun to take shape over the last few years and found a major following in International markets tired of the same stuff. It’s a genre with hardcore fighting that isn’t predicated on styles or even signature moves, where violence looms, threatens, and finally develops in a heated "debate" of fists and kicks. You probably wouldn’t have seen anything like "Flash Point" or "Sha Po Lang" ten or even five years ago, and it seems Yen has helped to usher in this new genre of Hong Kong action-crime films that combines grit, martial arts, and crime that has never been seen before."(via Asia Filmfest 2007 via BeyondHollywood.com)

"Flash Point" is an awesome action movie when the time came for it to deliver the goods, highlighting that Hong Kong action films still have what it takes to innovate within the genre. The back half of the film is packed to the gills with fight and action sequences and they stand as the most diverse and punishing sequences of Yen’s career."(via Asia Filmfest 2007 via Twitchfilm.net)

Kitano has described this film as part of the ongoing "creative destruction" of his career, which began in 2005 with Takeshis'. The movie is pretty crazy and I had to laugh a lot. There are different parts of the film, which were all good. But somehow I didn´t like the last part (mainly science fiction). Actually I can´t really describe the movie. All I can say is that you should only watch the movie if you are a Kitano fan.

About the movie:In his search for the perfect movie – one that will satisfy the urge to entertain and to explore the limits of film – cinematic mastermind Takeshi Kitano has produced a phantasmagorical allegory of the craft. Rooted in his personal catalogue of films, Glory to the Filmmaker! a corrosive yet light-hearted reflection on recent Japanese cinema, defying genre definition and radiating freedom and originality.Playing himself in the film, Kitano is confronted with the difficult task of producing a box-office hit after publicly announcing his decision to stop making gangster movies. He ventures first toward the well-mined field of formulaic genres. From neo-realist dramas to martial-arts period flicks, and from tear-jerking love stories to science-fiction and horror films made to anticipate their instant Hollywood remakes, he tries hard to create a commercial masterpiece. But his bizarre visions and their even stranger execution ultimately result in the producers’ refusal to finance any of his pitches.(via TIFF `07)

Today my brother showed up surprisingly. So he had to take care of the kids and we had the chance to go and see another Asia Filmfest movie. Today they showed the "surpise movie". We were lucky. They showed "My Blueberry Nights" directed by Wong Kar Wai.

PlotA young woman takes a journey across the United States to resolve her questions about love. She encounters a series of offbeat characters along the way.

The movie was the opening film for the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. It is Kar Wai Wong's first feature length English-language film. Norah Jones was the only choice for the leading role, despite her lack of prior acting experience actually it was her film debut.

Just a short post on this one. We saw the movie "Vexille" Thursday evening and did enjoy it. It was the opening film of the Asia Filmfest 2007 in Munich. It´s a good movie!The movie theater had an asian buffet in the entrance room, you could buy some Asian dvds, there was a promotional stand of Diamond Prosecco and of course some promotional material from the movies.

The entrance ticket to the movie was also the entrance ticket to the after-show party in the club 2rooms. I even managed to get Benjamin there for about half an hour. Interesting club, futuristic interior and they had japanese porn running on two or three screens. The famous DJ Hito from Japan appeared and I enjoyed my vodka. Unfortunately we missed Drag Queen Masu with her J-Pop-Playback-Midnight-Show.

About the movie:"One of the most – if not the most – hotly anticipated anime titles of the year, "Vexille" is nothing short of a visual feast. The production team behind the hugely successful "Appleseed" film reunite here for a high concept, high action sci-fi thriller that asks difficult questions about the nature of humanity and is remarkably willing to criticize the current state of Japan, particularly for a big, mainstream Japanese blockbuster."Vexillex" is a film that blows stuff up in spectacular fashion and that’s the level that most will judge it on. So, how does it look? The short answer: spectacular. The animation technique used in "Appleseed" has been pushed forward greatly here, the characters being made far more physically expressive with a vast improvement shown particularly in the facial expressions. Those who simply dislike the use of motion capture technology in animation will likely remain unconvinced but for those such as me who appreciate the technology, this is a major step forward. In the final analysis "Vexille" is a film that does an awful lot of things very, very well. It is an action spectacle that is, indeed, spectacular; a film that underpins its entertainment with high minded concepts and serious concerns that will ensure it remains engaging and challenging for quite some time. Eye candy it may be but these are no empty calories." (via Asia Filmfest 2007 via Twitchfilm.net)

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Over at Mithi's blog I read about a pay-it-forward game, which she found on Milla´s blog. I´m joining in on the fun, specially as the holiday season is coming up.

Here are the rules:"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3-5 (I think I prefer3 ;) ) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

Just comment here and wait and see what you´ll receive by mail. It´s fun making something special for someone you know - or even don´t know.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

A person who looks like one, talks like one, and even lives like one, ain't necessarily one. We'll just call you a 'scam-pire' until you can prove otherwise. You're about one step away from the real thing, but you gotta believe...

I´m only one step away. Any voluntary victims? Only excellent offers will be considered.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

October 25 to November 1, 2007 plenty of great Asian movies can be seen at the Asia Filmfest in Munich. I love going to Filmfests - specially the Asia Filmfest and theFantasy Filmfest. Unfortunately I didn´t have the time the past years to see a lot of movies. This year I have bought tickets for 3 movies so far. Maybe I´ll manage to watch more.

What I really like about Asian movies is that these movies can be extremely creepy, very strange und weird. I´ll let you know more about the movies when I´ve seen them next week.One of the movies which I already missed watching at the Fantasy Filmfest is "I´m a Cyborg, But That´s OK". At the Asian Filmfest I won´t be able to watch it either. :( But the website for Korean director Park Chan-wook’s film "I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK" is very interesting. It depicts a pop-up book with charmingly animated structures which inflate as you turn each page. OPEN THE BOOK!

Plot:After attempting suicide, Young Goon (Lim Soo Jung) ends up in an asylum, outfitted with retro accessories, concerned doctors, and plenty of quirky patients. Young Goon’s problem? She thinks she’s a cyborg. Her bigger problem? A cyborg can’t eat human food. Refusing to eat, she spends all her rapidly depleting energy communicating with her machine friends (like the coffee vending machine), plotting against the doctors, and trying to recharge herself with batteries.

Edward Gorey was a writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books. I read The Gashlycrumb Tinies when I was a child and I have loved his work ever since.He died a few years ago and now his house has been turned into a museum.The Tuning Fork is another project using Edward Gorey´s work.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Only 10 days to go. It´s Halloweeen time. So I´ll be posting some darker stuff the next ten days. Don´t watch the movie if you are sensitive. :)

"Rabbit" by Run Wrake. The film is a very simple morality tale about greed and the dangers of greed & exploring nature. Run Wrake found some 1950's stickers in a junk shop and made a film out of them. It took about 16 months from the start. He spent about one year for actual making animation and 4 months for pre-production.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Here´s a list of 100 things I would like to do which I saw on Keri Smith´s site. It could be fun to do this with a partner or maybe in a group and everybody can share their experience in their own blog or in the comments here on my blog. Anyone interested?

1.Go for a walk.Draw or list things you find on the the sidewalk.2. Write a letter to yourself in the future. 3. Buy something inexpensive as a symbol for your need to create, (new pen, a tea, cup, journal). Use it everyday. 4. Draw your dinner. 5. Find a piece of poetry you respond to. Rewrite it and glue it into your journal. 6. Glue an envelope into your journal. For one week collect items you find on the street. 7. Expose yourself to a new artist, (go to a gallery, or in a book.) Write about what moves you about it. 8. Find a photo of a person you do not know. Write a brief bio about them. 9. Spend a day drawing only red things. 10. Draw your bike. 11. Make a list of everything you buy in the next week. 12. Make a map of everywhere you went in one day. 13. Draw a map of the creases on your hand, (knuckles, palm) 14. Trace your footsteps with chalk. 15. Record an overheard conversation. 16. Trace the path of the moon in relation to where you live. 17. Go to a paint store. Collect 'chips' of all your favorite colors. 18. Draw your favorite tree. 19. Take 15 minutes to eat an orange. 20. Write a haiku. 21. Hang upside down for five minutes. 22. Hang found objects from tree branches. 23. Make a puppet. 24. Create an outdoor room from things you find in nature. 25. Read a book in one day. 26. Illustrate your grocery list. 27. Read a story out loud to a friend. 28. Write a letter to someone you admire. 29. Study the face of someone you do not like. 30. Make a meal based on a color theme. (i.e. all white). 31. Creat a museum of very small things. 32. List the smells in your neighborhood. 33. List 100 uses for a tin can. 34. Fill an entire page in your journal with small circles. Color them in. 35. Give away something you love. 36. Choose an object, draw the side you can't see. 37. List all of the places you've ever lived. 38. Describe your favourite room in detail. 39. Write about your relationship with your washing machine. 40. Draw all of the things in your purse/bag. 41. Make a mini book based on the theme, "my grocery list". 42. Create a character based on someone you know. Write a list of personality traits. 43. Recall your favorite childhood game. 44. Put postcards of art pieces/painting on the inside of your kitchen cupboard doors, so you can see them everyday (but not become deaf to them.) 45. Draw the same object every day for a week. 46. Write in your journal using a different medium (brush & ink, charcoal, old typewriter, crayons, fat markers. 47. Draw the individual items of your favorite outfit. 48. Make a useful item using only paper & tape. 49. Research a celebration or ritual from another culture. 50. Do a temporary art installation using a pad of post it notes & a pen. 51. Draw a map of your favorite sitting spots in your town/city. (photocopy it and give it to someone you like.) 52. Record all of the sounds you hear in the course of one hours. 53. Using a grid, collect various textures from magazine and play them off of each other. 54. Cut out all media for one day. Write about the effects. 55. Make pencil rubbings of six different surfaces. 56. Draw your garbage. 57. Do a morning collage. 58. List your ten most important things, (not including animals or people.) 59. List ten things you would like to do every day. 60. Glue a photo of yourself as a child into your journal. 61. Trasform some garbage. 62. Write an entry in your journal in really LARGE letters. 63. Collect some 'flat' things in nature (leaves, flowers). Glue or tape them into your journal. 64. Physically alter a page. (i.e. cut a hole, pour tea on it, burn it, fold it, etc.) 65. Find several color combinations you respond to in public. Document them using swatches, write where you found them. 66. Write a journal entry describing something "secret". Cut it up into several pieces and glue them back in scrambled. 67. Record descriptions or definitions of subjects or words you are interested in, found in encyclopedias or dictionaries. 68. Draw the outline of an object without looking at the page. (contour drawing). 69. What were you thinking just now? write it down. 70. Do nothing. 71. Write a list of ten things you could to do. Do the last thing on the list. 72. Create an image using dots. 73. Do 3 drawings at different speeds. 74. Put a small object in your left pocket (or in a bag), Put your left hand in the pocket. Draw it by feel. 75. Create a graph documenting or measuring something in your life. 76. Draw the sun. 77. Create instructions for a simple everyday task. 78. Make prints using food. (fruit and vegetables cut in half, fish, etc.) 79. Find a photo. Alter it by drawing over it. 80. Write a letter using an unconventional medium. 81. Draw one object for twenty minutes. 82. Combine two activities that have not been combined before. 83. Write about your day in an encyclopedic fashion. (i.e. organize by subject.) 84. Write a list of all the things you do to escape. 85. Cut a random shape out of several layers of a magazine. Make a collage out of the results. 86. Write an entry in code. 87. Make a painting using tools from the bathroom. 88. Work with a medium that is subtractive. 89. Write about or draw some of the doors in your life. 90. Make a postcard that has some kind of activity on it. 91. Divise a journal entry using "layers". 92. Divise an entry using "layers". 93. Write your own definition of one of the following concepts, sitting, waiting, sleeping (without using the actual word.) 94. List 10 of your habits. 95. Illustrate the concept of "simplicity".

Today I finally received my copy of "Wreck this journal", which celebrates creative destruction: "To Create Is To Destroy". She encourages the reader to fill the book in a messy kind of way and then to destroy the pages to experience the true creative process. The book is wonderful and I already find it difficult to destroy the pages, to poke holes into them and to crumble it - as suggested. Even writing in it seems hard to do, as I really consider books to be treasures and like to take care of them.

Still I wanted to start right away, but then I had this idea: It would be so much more fun to do this together with someone else. Then we could compare the pages. I think this could be fun to do and inspiring. Maybe we could also blog about it.I´m looking for someone who would like to do this with me. In exchange for the time you need to invest I would send you one copy of the for free. I had a look through the book. There is no need to be an artist.So, if you drop by my blog from time to time, can read and write English and would have fun doing this, just send me an email.

BTW: In case you want to have a look inside the book, watch the video on Danny Gregory´s blog. He reviews some books and "Wreck This Journal" is the first one.

Another blog I have been following for some time now is Keri Smith´s Wish Jar Journal. She´s one of the most creative persons I know. Considering my own future (I need to get out and start some creative work) it helps reading her phantastic advice. She´s got wonderful books and you should take a look at them: Wreck this journal, Living Out Loud,The Guerilla Art Kit.

Her site inspired me to start 2 projects (project 1, project 2). And I will need one or more partners to have more fun. Check out the next two posts for more information.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The past days I have been reminded a few times of the music I used to hear some years ago. Rammstein was one of the bands I listened to - among many different kinds of music. So here´s a video, which I specially like because of the colors: red and black.

What a great day yesterday. The ordered book"A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book" by Frank Warren finally came. I read about half of the pages so far and it feels as if I´m holding a treasure in my hands.And then a lady I got to know some weeks ago, just gave me her old bicycle. What a wonderful present! I´ve been wanting to have one for quite some time now. I offered to pay for it, but all she wants is to have a cup of coffee with me. Thanks, B.!

This is one of the pics I took in Amsterdam. I like the pic and the text. It´s a good motto. ;) It´s a mirror in the "House of Bols". If you look carefully you can see me inside the letters. I´ll post some more journal pages and about the fun I had there, in the next few days.

Monday, October 15, 2007

This week is starting out great. Two surprises waiting for me in my inbox and on the net.I received the creative blogger award by Mim and the Pill of the week on Illustration Friday Night for this illustration. Way cool! Thanks for the award and the pill. They made my week! :)

Here are my 5 blog nominations:

Mithi's Creative JourneyShe started the blog when she took time off from her career ladder as a research scientist at Cancer Research UK. She decided to reconnect to her creative side and she reports about the process of achieving this in her blog. Her life is inspirational to me, as she is leading it into the direction she wants it to be.

Diana KoehneI really enjoy reading Diana´s blog. So many different things, pics, drawings, etc. Take a look at her post-it gallery too.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Right now I had to delete the first comment ever. Listen, I´m very open-minded and love to talk about everything. But I do not like it if someone comes to my site to rant about other websites - specially in a way which I do not find acceptable.

In case you feel the need to talk this way about other blogs and sites just send me an email. But please do not use the f***-words in the public comments. (Exceptions can be made when talking about sexually explicit topics! ;) )

A last minute entry for IF with the special topic "Open". Please enlarge the image to have a better look at it. The illustration was made of these words: "Open your heart and let it out". 3 or 4 times I wrote "Open your eyes and let it out" by mistake. I guess, that´s right too.

"We here at Illustration Friday are so excited to announce the first ever Illustration Friday gallery show!Open, a bookstore and art gallery in Long Beach, California in Long Beach, California is sponsoring this week’s topic, “open“, and in a show opening November 3rd — in less than a month — they will display 25 IF entries. Which 25? That’s up to you, the loverly IF community! You get to vote on your favorites to decide which ones go up on the walls."

So in case you like my illustration vote for it on IF. Click on the "Open"-contest and then just press on the gray star next to the pic and my name (ksklein). :)

This week´s topic on IFN is `INSPIRED BY´. The instruction is to create something in direct communication with a piece of work recently posted on IFN and to put up the new piece of work along with a link to the piece that inspired it.So I would like to post the pics and some comments which lead to this week´s theme.

Last weeks topic was "What Goes In Must Come Out". The starting point was the illustration by Mim:

What goes in...

...really has to come out....

Comments:ksklein:lol.... mim, you gave me a bad, bad idea! :) i´m not sure whether i´m going to post that here. :)Mim:Go ahead girl - if you're thinking what I'm thinking it will be a complex drawing

Comments:red-handed:Nice mouth. Do blowjobs really cause babies? ksklein: well, sometimes they do. that´s actually not the problem. the problem is the tightness of the neck... hard work! *lolksklein:btw: i was wondering whether the guys would be scared by the teeth showing?? ;)Ellis Nadler:The vagina dentata appears in the myths of several cultures, most notably in several North American Indian tribes. Erich Neumann relays one such myth in which “A meat-eating fish inhabits the vagina of the Terrible Mother; the hero is the man who overcomes the Terrible Mother, breaks the teeth out of her vagina, and so makes her into a woman.”Prozacville: Cool. Like the internal inspirations thing. Would be great one week to do a tag thing where everyone has to post as a response to the previous person posting.Next week?ksklein: hey mim, was this what you were expecting?Mim: wonderful! Not quite what I expected but really a great sketch.

Monday, October 8, 2007

My favorite blog ever is PostSecret. I wait all week for the new post which is published every Sunday. Check out this nice little movie about PostSecret on YouTube.Frank Warren has invited people from all over the world to send him creative postcards bearing secrets they have never before revealed. These PostSecrets are shared on his award-winning blog, in an art exhibit, and in books: the bestselling PostSecret, My Secret, and The Secret Lives of Men and Women.

I ordered his fourth and new book A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book months before it was even published. And it will be sent off any day now. I collect all of his books and its secrets. Some of the secrets will shock you, many will move you, they can make you smile,...

I don´t consider myself to be a very secretive person, but in almost every new post I discover one secret which could be mine. I sent in a few secrets too. I´ll let you know if one of them will be posted.

This postcard is one of my favorite secrets on PostSecret so far. I remember that I was very moved when I read this:

The museum is housed in four synagogues. Each synagoge shows a different part of the museum. There was an exhibit which reminded me of my husband: A hat with a hat box and a little hammer. Any body who knows what it is used for?One exhibition showed works by Charlotte Salomon, titled "Work in Progress". On display were the reverse sides as well as individual sketches which she made for her series of over eight hundred gouaches, "Life? or Theater?". Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943) painted these remarkable gouaches to tell her life story.Charlotte presumably considered the pieces that were on show unsuitable to include in her series. The sheets were unnumbered, and in some cases she concealed the person’s face, by sticking something over it. The exhibition offered an intimate insight into Charlotte’s sense of humour and her sensitivity.The second exhibition showed "Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama" about the first international super star. Sarah Bernhardt´s name became synonymous with acting and continued to cast a spell on players and audiences throughout the world long after her death. She was the first stage actress to appear in films.